Tuesday night, I went to a St. Josephs Day dinner with my lady friend (she's Italian) at a friend's house. Last night on Chat, I was chatting about it, the special St. Josephs Day bread etc., and I mentioned how much I liked the Pasta con le Sarde and what was in it. One of the chatters, who had never heard of St. Josephs Day, that the thought of a pasta dish that contained sardines, raisins, pine nuts and tomatoes was making her gag. She suggested that I post about it here, because she couldn't believe someone would actually eat this. So here is a link to a recipe that seems similar to what we had on Tuesday:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sicilian-Style-Pasta-with-Sardines-106272Does anyone else like this?

I saw that recipe from Gourmet last weekend while I was helping Betsy "trim" the recipe files. Very good, we haven't done in ages. We also liked this one, which we've done for a quick weekedn lunch a couple of timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/dinin ... ref=diningI love sardines as an occasional treat (I think I would tire if I ate more than once every month or two), even the pedestrian ones are good, but the better Spanish/Portugese ones seem to be several steps above the average Polish/Moroccan/Canadian.

I've seen some recipes for Pasta con le Sarde using fresh sardines and have been on the lookout for them for just that purpose. Unfortunately, they're difficult to find around here. I'll have to try the one you've linked to, Howie. It sounds good.

I have two or three copies of this recipe saved from different sources. It is my go to dish for late nights when I'm hungry and want something quick but satisfying. I have a similar one that uses tuna. I use a good quality canned tuna for this dish. Both are great and soul satisfying.

"...To undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all tastes and smells form their harmonies." -- Robert Farrar Capon

I don't know whether this helps -- but I have 3 or 4 Asian supermarkets nearby (Chinese and Korean) and that's a really good place to find fresh sardines. The selection of fish tends to be very good at Asian markets, try 'em if you have one locally.

This topic reminded me of a piece I saw on CBS' Sunday Morning just a few years ago about the closing of the last Sardine plant in the U.S. I couldn't find the video reportage, but did find a print article that's very informative.